Posted on 06/05/2004 6:50:12 PM PDT by goorala
Standing in his crisp dress blues behind the stage at the state Republican convention Friday afternoon, Marine Staff Sgt. Eric Alva must have seemed the perfect spokesman for the Grand Old Party.
Clean-cut, patriotic and grateful for the party's support of the military, Alva drew standing ovations, laughter and tears from the crowd of 17,000 at the Convention Center.
Here was the first casualty of the conflict, a hero who remains one of the most visible local faces of the war. Some in attendance yelled for him to run for office.
But as the 5-foot-1 Marine stood on a box talking about having no regrets despite losing his leg and trigger finger in Iraq, Alva had a secret. Come November, he just might vote for John Kerry — the presumptive Democratic candidate for president.
Having joined the Marines so eager to serve that he gulped bananas and Snickers bars and guzzled water to make the requisite weight — 102 pounds — Alva had scanned the world through the goggles of a tumultuous war and become skeptical: of the conflict, of President Bush, of his own beliefs.
"My support for the war has changed," he said earlier this week. "The American public was deceived into this war by Bush's administration. It makes me angry."
Alva, however, didn't talk about such things Friday as he stood in front of the partisan crowd on his titanium leg.
With their Bush campaign buttons and elephant hats, this staunchly conservative group did not, could not grasp the complexity of the man who spoke of love of country. Its members knew nothing of his misgivings or how he had come to them.
"Not one day goes by that I regret what I did," Alva told the listeners, who applauded approvingly. "Of course my life will never be the same, but I am blessed because I came home."
Alva's is a story of one Marine who's coming to grips with his sentiments over a war that has divided a nation. Of how a slight San Antonio boy built himself into a member of what some consider the most elite military service. And how a tour through the desert ultimately led him to question his country's mission.
At 90 pounds, Alva was a scrawny graduate of Southwest High School in 1989. The desire to leave home coupled with school burnout propelled him to the military. Dislike of the Navy's uniform and fear that the Air Force would keep him in San Antonio left him two options.
"And if I was going to in the Army, I thought, heck I might as well go for the gusto," Alva recalled. "I told my family I was going to join the Marines. People didn't take me seriously."
With protein shakes and fast food he beefed up. Strength training sculpted him. Over nine months, he shaped himself into a Marine.
In March 1991 — in the middle of the first Gulf War — he received his choice of assignments in supply administration. He readily acknowledges he wanted a flexible administrative job and didn't want to be a rifleman.
Still, his work — which entailed keeping track and ordering myriad supplies — sent him across the globe. For 12 years, he stayed on the move, traveling to Japan, Somalia and California.
The changing environments introduced new sports, from downhill skiing to scuba diving. Always a runner, Alva became even more dedicated, completing a marathon in 3 hours and 10 minutes. His friendships spanned the globe, and there were girlfriends, but he never settled down.
In that time, the world became more turbulent. There were attacks on U.S. embassies and warships. And then there was a Tuesday morning in September 2001. Suddenly the United States found itself mired in a self-declared war on terrorism.
Alva was a willing recruit.
In early 2003, he flew from his California base to Kuwait, awaiting the official declaration of war on Iraq. On March 21, the official first day of the conflict, Alva crossed the sandy border into Iraq. Three hours, later he heard the explosion.
As he walked back to the vehicle to get more supplies, he stepped on a land mine. A medic — a friend from Austin — rushing to his aid set off another mine. The two men now have two legs between them.
Alva was able to return home to San Antonio in late April. Here, he learned how to cope with an above-knee amputation of his right leg and with limited function of his right hand.
Pity came to him while lying in his hospital bed, but its visit was brief.
"At first I hated life. I was mad at the world, I wish I had died. I thought what did I do to deserve this?" he remembered. "Now I see that I was blessed, because I'm alive. I got to come home."
With a team of physical therapists and prosthetists, Alva learned to walk again. His silver and blue, computer-controlled leg turns heads — he didn't opt for a cosmetic, skin-colored covering.
"I figured this is who I am," he said. "I wanted people to see it."
He's also been fitted with a swimming leg and a running leg is being built for him — he's determined to run another marathon.
Later this month he will close on his first house, newly built on the Northwest Side, near his twin sister's house where he is now living. A few days later, at age 33, Alva will accept medical retirement from the Marines, ending his 13-year career in the military.
In August, he'll begin classes at the University of the Incarnate Word, where he wants to finish his undergraduate degree in athletic training. He hopes to become a physical therapist, working with other disabled people, particularly amputees.
And Alva will continue to make the national speaker circuit, as he did Friday, about overcoming challenges and celebrating blessings.
But behind the prepared remarks will linger his candid, unflinching sentiments about the current war. Reflections that Alva is unapologetic about.
"If someone thinks I'm wrong, I'd tell them to go pick up a weapon, fight in Iraq, and maybe we can talk," he said. "I think I've earned my right to have a voice. More than ever — more than a lot of people."
With his house adorned with yellow ribbons and U.S. flags and personalized Purple Heart license plates on his SUV that read, "Iraq 03," there is no doubt Alva remains in love with the country he lost a leg for.
"I am beyond patriotic," he said. "I may be against this war now because I don't see a set path on what we're doing, but I'll always support the men and women who wear the uniform."
Alva is most hurt by the violence inflicted by Iraqi insurgents. It makes him wonder why the United States lingers there. But in the next breath he reasons that stability must be in place before U.S. forces pack up.
"I don't know why we're there anymore. They don't want us there anymore," he said. "But if we left now and the government wasn't stable, then I feel my leg was lost in vain. You have to think: 'What did we go in there for?'"
Like millions of his fellow citizens, Alva doubts whether weapons of mass destruction ever will be discovered.
"We've been all over that country," he said. "We found Saddam Hussein in a hole in the ground, why can't we find the weapons?"
Complex, conflicted, in the next moment Alva is pleased by what U.S. forces have accomplished in Iraq.
"I can't be upset. We did free these people from such an aggression that many people in this country will never understand," he said. "I was there. I saw how those people lived.
"There's some stability there. We've done some good — I look at it that way."
It all makes him undecided on whom to vote for in the fall.
"If the elections were held tomorrow, I would vote for Bush. I don't want him to get off so easy. He needs to finish what he started," Alva said. "Come November, I don't know how I'll vote."
Slowly, Alva is sifting through the remnants of his war.
"I'm reminded every day when I put my leg on about the war. Not a day goes by that I don't think of families whose loved ones won't come home," he said. "A part of me didn't come home — my leg stayed in Iraq.
"War is not perfect, everybody has to understand. The statistics of it is that people get hurt and people die. War is ugly."
But on Friday, in front of a crowd of adoring Republicans, that ugliness wasn't so evident. Alva's questioning was cloaked.
"It's very impressive," convention-goer Natalie Lovins of Austin said after she heard Alva's story. "He's very hopeful. He's optimistic, his spirit comes through. I'm so proud he represents us."
Afterward, Alva lingered backstage, listening to veterans of other wars tell their tales. And wondered if they had questions of their own.
Who cares? It's his one vote and he has a right to exercise it even if he is poorly advised.
A very confused man.
I'm not trying to belittle this young man and I appreciate his service and sacrifice but it seems as though he is talking in circles. I wonder how he would have felt had he not been injured-would his outlook be the same?
Agreed. What he sacrificed was for a cause of freedom and stability. He needs to read The Connection. Half way done. The dots from 9/11 to Iraq are staggering.
Poor Fool - another victim of the leftist media and ignorant "conservatives" who keep asking, "where's the WMD?" like whiny little spoiled babies.
I am on record stating at the very onset of this that the US would find them, gather them up and destroy them, but NEVER admit to ever seeing them. There is a reason and if you have to ask, you have no business knowing.
yes when i was in the corps 75-79,i did remember some scum.
back then we blaimed it on the body-snatchers[recruiters]
i remember a perp that had a blankie,ie linus.
he did not last,this guy apparently does not know what "semper fidelis",means.
A baby John Kerry....you cannot support the troops and pull a Hackwiorth. This guy wanted to be in the military as long as he didn't have to fight. NOw he is bitter because he had to go to war. No sympathy from me. I look to the folks who at 17, 18 , 19 years old put their life on the lines in a battle not of their making on the off chance that freedom could be restored to a continent far away.
SONDS MORE PLAUSIBLE.
Sgt. Alva unequivocally denied making these kinds of statements.
I hope this is true. I hate to think he would be making those kind of statements with his fellow marines still in the theater of operation. It would be one of the highest forms of betrayal.
I'll cut this injured Marine a lot more slack than Nick Berg's father. Losing a leg is a big deal.
Letter to the editor of that lying media whore ....
letters@express-news.net
"I heard Sgt. Alva's speak live at the convention yesterday and again on tape today. David Barton, our state Vice Chair, said that Sgt. Alva unequivocally denied making these kinds of statements. I'm betting that Amy Dorsett is a master provocateur and should be fired after first apologizing to the Sgt."
Either this is bogus or he got up and made political speeches and comments reference a party while in uniform? There is a reason why in UNIFORM you are NOT allowed to do this. What he don't realize is that the military though actually predominetely conservative, must not get involved or get sucked into politics this way. It's a very very bad trend.
Red6
I appreciate what happened to him, but he was ripe for his change of heart; he signed up for the military to get away from something else, he knew he didn't want combat duty.
He's entitled to his opinion, but he doesn't represent anyone but himself, but the media dogs would have us believe otherwise.
If so, it could be libel.
He may have denied making those statements, but I'll only believe that if he demands the paper print a retraction.
Otherwise, I put him down as a uneducated fool that allowed a bunch of folks, both GOP and Dim, take advantage of him.
He certainly sounded convincing at the Convention - I heard him there also - but now it looks to me as if somebody in our Party just didn't do their homework.
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